Preparing CS Honours students for a research career: the Wollongong experience

International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, Jul 2005 by Fulcher, John A, Piper, Ian C

Abstract

This paper describes our experiences in recent years of introducing an Honours seminar program in order to better prepare students who continue on to pursue research postgraduate study. Benefits also accrue for those students who do not proceed to further study, and these are also discussed.

Keywords honours; research; training

There is a lack of standardisation across Australia regarding the structure of undergraduate Honours programs, which extends down to the individual institutional level. Honours degrees within the University of Wollongong encompass a wide variety of models, and span all nine Faculties (Arts, Commerce, Creative Arts, Education, Engineering, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Informatics, Law, and Science). These models are fundamentally divided into end-on Honours (in which a specifically designated additional Honours year is spent on top of a normal 3-year degree) versus integrated Honours (in which some students in a standard 4-year undergraduate degree, based on their achievement in the first three years, are deemed to be pursuing an Honours degree in their final year of undergraduate studies). Some of the degree programs are vocation-based (eg. Environmental Science, Nursing), but most follow the traditional academic (research training) model. Most incorporate an individual thesis component, some of which are examined externally.

The School of IT & Computer Science (SITACS) within the Faculty of Informatics represents something of a microcosm within the University of Wollongong, inasmuch as it offers both integrated (BInfoTech) and end-on (BCompSc) Honours programs. The reasons for this are partly pedagogical and partly historical. The main undergraduate degrees offered by the School are the 4-year Bachelor of Information & Communications Technology (BInfoTech) and the 3-year Bachelor of Computer Science (BCompSc). Joint degrees are also offered, such as the B.Internet Technology, B.Bioinformatics, B.Geoinformatics and several double-degree programs such as BEng/BCompSc, BMath/BCompSC, BSc/BCompSc, LLB/BCompSc and BCA/BCompSc.

Now what is the function and purpose of Honours in general? Honours would appear to serve two primary functions: (a) it rewards excellence in earlier undergraduate years of study, and (b) it introduces high-quality students to research, in anticipation that some will proceed to postgraduate study (exactly how many is debatable, and this issue will be revisited in a later section). For those who do not proceed on to a research postgraduate degree, they nevertheless form a cohort of high achievers who subsequently move into the wider community as ambassadors for their alma mater.

One final observation regarding the honours experience is worth mentioning at this point: from the student's perspective, there are sound pedagogical reasons for not undertaking all their studies at the same university. In this sense, individual institutions have a responsibility for fostering the careers of students - which can be construed as a community service.

SITACS Honours offerings

Entry into either Honours program is predicated upon the prospective student demonstrating a credit-level (≥65%) performance in their preceding undergraduate years.

In the case of prospective BInfoTech Honours a further hurdle exists. In the first seminar of their final year, IACT Honours students who are potential Honours candidates undertake a research methodology subject in which they, among other things, undertake the preliminary work on their thesis. Students who attain a distinction-level (≥75%) standard in this subject complete their thesis along with two other 400-level subjects in the 2nd semester. Students who are not successful in this endeavour undertake four 400-level subjects in the 2nd semester and proceed to a pass degree.

Typical InfoTech Honours enrolment numbers are around 30-40 each year - by contrast, annual BCompSc Honours enrolments are of the order of 6-8. The reasons for the low take-up of CS Honours are largely historical - primarily salary sacrifice and increased Australian Government Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) debt, in what has been, at least up until quite recently, a 'buyers market' in the IT industry (interestingly however, enrolments have not significantly increased in the wake of the dot.com crash).

It is the latter (CS) Honours cohort which is the focus of this paper. We first, however, address a commonly held misconception that Honours is primarily a 'training ground' for PhDs.

Debunking a myth

In 2002, the University of Wollongong, conscious of the growing significance of domestic postgraduate enrolments to its research funding, coupled with declining undergraduate Honours enrolments, instigated an investigation into Honours programs across campus: 'failure to attract postgraduate research students has implications for research programs, prestige, morale and more tangibly, other research quanta.'1 This investigation was predicated upon the assumption that Honours provides a significant proportion (up to 80%) of our research postgraduate cohort. In reality, the investigation found that efforts would be better spent on alternate routes into PhD programs, since the former accounts for by far the largest proportion of enrolments. Actually the figures are not consistent across Faculties, varying from 5-10% in Engineering, Education and Creative Arts, through 20-25% in Science and Informatics, to virtually 100% in Health & Behavioural Science. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that students are beginning to opt for Research Masters as a viable alternative to Honours (the former being HECS exempt and also eligible for scholarships).